Congrats to the Virginia baseball team for sweeping their two-game midweek series against Towson! I couldn’t make the second game this evening (stupid class), but I was there in spirit. My sources on the ground (aka: friends who went to the game) said it was a high-flying, hard-hitting contest. However, nothing beats Tuesday’s “Two Dollar Hot Dog Night” special. I’ve made this assertion before, and I’ll say it again: There is nothing better than a hot dog at a baseball game.
Sadly, myself and other fans will have to wait until next Tuesday to catch the team in action back at Davenport. They are on the road this weekend at N.C. State, but will return to Charlottesville to take on James Madison and Radford next week. Hopefully the weather will remain divine for next week’s games.
Men’s lacrosse is away this weekend, baseball is away, men’s tennis is away… Where have all my No. 1 teams gone? Never fear! Baseball will be back next weekend, as will men’s tennis and *da da DAH* the football spring game! Hope to see all of you there!
There’s a storm brewing, pun intended, down in Hurricane country as Miami and football coach Randy Shannon continue to talk about a contract extension. Shannon wants more money, particularly considering his place in the ACC pecking order of salaries. Check out those salaries and more in this Sun Sentinel blog post or this Sun Sentinel column.
Defensive Line Coach/Recruiting Coordinator Jeff Hanson discussed the importance, recruiting-wise, of Saturday’s open scrimmage at Old Dominion University.
“Coach London felt like it was important to get back in the 757 area code and make a presence down there and let people know that we’re going to recruit the in-state area hard and make ourselves available to those people,” Hanson said. “There’s been a lot of great talent down there in the past. It’s a very, very good recruiting area. We just felt like, going down there and taking our show down there and getting around the high school coaches down there would be good for us.”
Several in-state junior targets, including Menchville (Newport News, VA) running back prospect Clifton Richardson and Phoebus (Hampton, VA) linebacker Caleb Taylor, told TheSabre.com earlier this month that they plan to attend the scrimmage. We expect more recruits to attend as well. Richardson, a 6-1, 195-pound prospect, is a “soft” commitment to the Cavaliers.
I caught up with Fork Union Military Academy Postgraduate head coach John Shuman today. Shuman, fresh off of FUMA’s Spring Break, says 6-7, 340-pound Morgan Moses continues to work towards qualifying.
“He took the latest SAT last Saturday. He is scheduled to take the ACT on April 10,” Shuman said.
Moses will finish up a course at Fork Union in early April. He will then take one more course. Shuman is hoping for top grades in those two courses, as two top grades would help Moses in his attempt to qualify.
“He is doing real good in the classroom, so we feel he is moving forward,” Shuman said.
Moses will take all standardized tests.
“He is anxious to get over to UVa on April 10 after the SAT,” Shuman said. “I told him to get this done, get the points, and he’ll be over there all year next year.”
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Coach Shuman was excited to learn of a commitment to his program this morning.
“We landed a 6-7, 265-pound offensive lineman out of Huron High School in Ann Arbor,” Shuman said, referring to Christian Piazza. “He reminds me of [Boston College lineman Anthony] Castonzo. He’s a long-snapper, but we’ll get him playing a couple of spots.”
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New offer out at DeMatha?
I spoke briefly with DeMatha Catholic (Hyattsville, MD) head coach Bill McGregor this morning. Virginia has already offered nationally recruited offensive tackle Cyrus Kouandjio. Coach McGregor believes Virginia may have offered junior defensive back Jordan Lomax.
Here is what McGregor said about the 5-11, 185-pound Lomax last month.
“We may have three highly recruited defensive backs. One is Jordan Lomax. Jordan is part of our 4X100 relay team. This winter, he is running the 4X200 relay. We are number one in the state. Jordan is the anchor on that, I believe. He had a good year. It was tough to keep him off the field.”
January enrollment is frequently a hot message board topic on The Sabre; it particularly fell under debate during the final years of the Al Groh era for the football program. Virginia did not appear to lean too favorably toward the mid-year enrollment route for freshman athletes. As pointed out frequently, however, there is not a UVa rule preventing January enrollment and each decision comes on a case-by-case basis. The key for the football program (or any Cavalier program for that matter) is to present strong candidates for mid-year admission and then prove that your program can successfully help those recruits through the transition to college and ultimately graduate.
New UVa football coach Mike London addressed the January enrollment issue at a media session earlier this month. London believes that it is important to produce successful student-athletes through mid-year enrollment in order to earn the privilege of admitting future January recruits.
“The important thing to me is the ones we do get in mid-year that they do well. Because that may lend itself to having more opportunities later on down the road,” London said. “Will Hill is one of those guys that got in mid-year and he’s doing real well. Michael Strauss, if he does well, then if the situation presents itself and we present the academic credentials to those that make the decisions, then maybe they’ll look upon us favorably.”
London pointed out that there is not a rule or restriction on January admission for student-athletes at UVa.
“It can [make an impact]. Again, you look at the different schools and their profiles and what they allow in or what their admissions process is. Currently, right now there is not a roadblock that says we can’t. Obviously, you’ve seen a couple that are here,” he said. “I think it’s important for us for the ones that do come in, that we continue [to show that] they are good students, they can handle the rigors of being a college student-athlete mid-semester, and make that transition. If they can do that and we can prove that, then hopefully the doors are open for other opportunities.”
Virginia freshman Robby Andrews won the NCAA indoor track title in the 800 meters on Saturday in Arkansas (read about it here). UVa coach Jason Vigilante has coached two National Champion freshmen in the past five years. FloTrack caught up with Vigilante to talk about Andrews’ title and more.
Virginia 2010 class basketball recruit James Johnson has been selected to play in the Jack Jones Shootout, an all-star game held on April 10th in Memphis, Tennessee. Johnson, a 6-9, 230-pound forward, was also recently named Valley Player of the Year by The Californian.
Meanwhile, another Cavaliers 2010 class recruit, Brewbaker Tech (Montgomery, AL) guard K.T. Harrell was named Class 4A Player of the Year by the Alabama Sports Writers Association. Harrell averaged 27.5 points, 10.7 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 2.8 steals per game in helping Brewbaker to the Class 4A state championship game. He is also a finalist for the state of Alabama’s Mr. Basketball award, which is announced on March 24 .
Lake Chelan (WA) guard/forward Joe Harris has already been named Mr. Basketball in the state of Washington for his play in the 2009/2010 season. We’ll have more on Harris and Johnson on the EDGE tomorrow, followed by more on Harrell and the rest of Virginia’s 2010 class in the coming weeks.
On the 2011 class front, TheSabre.com has confirmed that Virginia has offered a pair of Milton High School (Alpharetta, GA) standouts, including top shooting guard Dai-Jon Parker and top forward prospect Julian Royal. Virginia has plenty of company with both prospects and, at this point, doesn’t seem to be high on the list of either. The 6-8 Royal may decide this spring according to his coach, while Parker, a 6-3 prospect, may wait. We’ll have more on these prospects later in the week.
Milton head coach David Boyd also stated that Virginia is one of the first to offer 6-7 sophomore forward Evan Nolty. Nolty has also been offered by Georgia and has serious interest from Duke, among others. Boyd likens Nolty’s skillset with current Blue Devil Kyle Singler, although he admits that Nolty is not on that level yet.
There’s some general complaining here and there about the boring nature of this year’s ACC Tourney. Some of this is obviously due to the conference being down this year. But I’ll add another ongoing problem: I think a lot of the blame can be laid on the ACC itself for poor marketing. While some blame expansion for “watering down the product,” I think the problem is with the ACC’s usual backwards thinking. Indeed, the Big East has more teams than the ACC, but their conference tournament is the darling of “championship week” in the national media.
Well, here’s a starting point: move the ACC tournament, please!
Virginia football coach Mike London made a trip to Norfolk this week for the Norfolk Sports Club Jamboree as a guest speaker. WAVY TV’s Bruce Rader sat down with London for an interview during the visit. Check it out.
Following the Cavaliers’ 68-62 victory over Boston College in the opening round of the ACC Tournament, senior captain Jerome Meyinsse had an interesting exchange with one reporter in regard to Sylven Landesberg’s future. Landesberg was suspended prior to last Sunday’s game against Maryland due to a failure to meet his academic obligations. Here is the exchange, beginning with an answer from Meyinsse about whether he had spoken to Landesberg.
Meyinsse: He [Landesberg] came by, and he talked to a few guys. I just wished him the best of luck for what he decides to do.
Q: You have a gut feeling, don’t you?
Meyinsse:: (Chuckles) I do.
Q: What’s the gut?
Meyinsse:: Uh, I’m not going to talk about it. It will come out when it’s time, his decision. But, I just wish him the best.
January enrollment is frequently a hot message board topic on The Sabre; it particularly fell under debate during the final years of the Al Groh era for the football program. Virginia did not appear to lean too favorably toward the mid-year enrollment route for freshman athletes. As pointed out frequently, however, there is not a UVa rule preventing January enrollment and each decision comes on a case-by-case basis. The key for the football program (or any Cavalier program for that matter) is to present strong candidates for mid-year admission and then prove that your program can successfully help those recruits through the transition to college and ultimately graduate.
